The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced Friday that the official foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong amounted to 218.1 billion U.S. dollars at the end of July 2009.

According to the authority, the amount of foreign currency reserve stood at 207 billion U.S. dollars at the end of June.

Including unsettled forward contracts, the foreign currency reserve assets of Hong Kong at the end of July 2009 stood at 219.8 billion U.S. dollars. A total of 208.2 billion U.S. dollars was recorded at the end of June.

Hong Kong is the world's seventh largest holder of foreign currency reserves based on the latest published figures, after the Chinese mainland, Japan, Russia, China's Taiwan, India and South Korea.

The total foreign currency reserve assets of 218.1 billion U.S. dollars represent about nine times the currency in circulation or 48 percent of Hong Kong dollar M3.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2009)